Will Trump call for healing – or rub salt in wounds – in wake of rally shooting?

Attack is likely to fortify sense of grievance his supporters already feel toward political elites as campaign seizes on opportunity to fuel narrative of persecution

It will be the new must-have for every Donald Trump acolyte. The indelible image of the former US president, ear bloodied and fist raised as Secret Service agents try to rush him away from a would-be assassin's bullets, has already been turned into a $35 T-shirt with a simple legend: Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The words are taken from Trump's entreaty as he was bundled off stage in the aftermath of the shooting which left one man dead at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. His supporters responded with chants of USA! USA!" and by angrily turning on the media, pointing fingers of blame at journalists.